Friendship Lightning

From that storm that came through one afternoon.

Live the Questions Now

The title is drawn from a Rilke quote rotating along Elizabeth Perry's site , a Pittsburgh treasure for sure.

Tonight I watched Penn State beat Notre Dame with my neighbor Bob (he's the Class of '38 from Dear Old State, I'm '92).

Bob told me about being on the sidelines as a 12 yr. old in 1930 when Knute Rockne brought his team to town to face Jock Sutherland at Pitt. He was earning boy scout merit badges at the games by working as an usher, but for the Notre Dame game he got to be on the field. Bob helped set up the Notre Dame bench and then sat on it during the game, fetching things from the locker room as needed. He doesn't remember much from that day other than sitting there in awe of the Notre Dame players. I have this image of Bob going back into the locker room to get something just as Knute Rockne was firing up his guys with another win one for the Gipper speech.

The Boy Scouts had a big effect on Bob. Joe Katz was his scout leader (he was three or four years older than Bob). I actually think Joe Katz may have been Pittsburgh's first paid blogger:

His first big break came during the Pittsburgh Flood of 1936. Joe and his partner got an idea after seeing "all of Pittsburgh seemingly taking those unforgettable photos of desks, chairs and debris floating down the main thoroughfares in Pittsburgh's Golden Triangle." Joe decided to publish a souvenir booklet of the flood. He bought up anyone's undeveloped films, spent a whole night reproducing the photos, then took a train to Cleveland (where at least they had electricity) to have 100,000 copies printed overnight. "We sold them all in four days at 10 cents apiece,"Joe says. But he adds: "For years I could have kicked myself. For 50 cents they would have sold just as easily! Even so, that was the most money I had ever seen in my life."

By the way, the Lions didn't come alive until Bob joined the "White Out" and held up this Dear Old State shirt that I gave to him last weekend. Hmmm...

Truth be told, Bob rooted for the offense of both teams the whole game. He said he just wanted to see good football. What, good defensive football doesn't count?

Searching for Wisdom...

Searching is really what this blog is all about, searching and discovering new things in the world of elderhood and helping to bring them to Pittsburgh. That and championing the good things that are already here, all as a volunteer along with my elderly neighbors.

So imagine my surprise while searching tonight when I came across this feature piece by Barry Barkan in the current issue of Tikkun. Barry had told me it was coming out when I saw him in August, but I had completely forgotten about it.

For those who didn't read my opening post last Friday, Barry is an Ashoka Fellow and originator of the Elders Guild idea. If you get a chance watch this special interview with Barry created as part of the Ashoka-Berkeley Social Entrepreneurship Digital Library Project.

From the Tikkun article:

The Elders Guild—and whatever other organization we can create that provides community, nurtures wisdom, and commits to healing the future—can rebalance the world. I have learned from my work as a community organizer with thousands of old people that the mixed blessing of older years is the great social equalizer. It creates the universal ground that transcends economics, race, religion, ideology, and health status.

Old people have taught us that long years frequently smooth our jagged places, humble us, deepen our compassion, and enable us to respect common wisdom. Given a modicum of integrity, it is likely that, as we ripen, we will care more deeply about the important things: about life itself, about relationships, about the preciousness of the mother planet, about peace, about harmonizing with the sacred, about being loving, about forgiveness, and about taking responsibility for the world we will leave behind to the grandchildren.

"We are Less Independent Now..."

Here's a discussion from a few months ago about life in a NORC. I think Bob sheds some light on the distinction between aging in place and aging in community.

Won't You Be My Neighbor(hood) NORC?

Which area of Pittsburgh is best suited for a "Neighborhood Naturally Occurring Retirement Community"?

Here how NY State is defining a NNORC, as part of a state-funded effort to help elders age in community:

The term Neighborhood NORC shall mean and refer to a residential dwelling or group of residential dwellings in a geographically defined neighborhood of a municipality which:

1. contains not more than two thousand persons who are elderly (i.e., 60 years of age or older);
2. contains elderly in at least forty percent of the units;
3. is made up of low-rise buildings six stories or less in height and/or single and multi-family homes;
4. area was not originally developed for elderly persons; and,
5. does not restrict admission strictly to the elderly.

The NNORC they're starting in Albany is in the southwest section of town, where 27% of the residents are over the age of 60 and 47% of the households have at least one resident 65 years of age or older. Here's the NY State request for proposals (.pdf) to help fund it.

I'm looking at Pittsburgh's 2000 census data and so far Swisshelm Park looks like a pretty good candidate for a NNORC - though probably on the small side for really making it work (only 1,378 residents). In 1999, 27.8% of residents there were over age 62, and 40.5% of the households had someone over age 65.

The New York Times article back in June described several examples of the growing "grassroots effort to grow-old at home."

I seem to recall reading somewhere about a group in Mt. Lebanon meeting to discuss this approach, but can't find a link anywhere.

Here is a program in St. Louis. that seeks to link community volunteers with good old fashioned Naturally Occurring Retirement Community (where the elders are co-located in an actual building).

Where the Grandparents Cohabitate...

According to the census data I extracted from the neighborhood reports on the City Planning site, in 1999 there were 6,038 households in Pittsburgh in which a grandparent was living with one or more grandchildren under age 18.

In 2,727 of the households (45%), the grandparent was the primary caregiver for the grandchild.

Below are the top 20 neighborhoods in terms of absolute number raising grandchildren. Obviously many of the grandparents are under age 65 (many are probably in their forties), but I included the % of households with someone over 65 in the neighborhood anyway:

	% of households with someone 65 and over	number of households with grandparent and own grandchild under age 18	number of grandparents raising grandchildren
Lincoln-Lemington-Belmar	38.8	345	184
Garfield	26.1	293	123
Homewood North	32.5	253	110
Brookline	32.4	222	58
Perry South	28.1	183	97
Bloomfield	24.2	167	21
Marshall-Shadeland	29.5	165	73
East Hills	30.5	164	78
Carrick	32.9	159	62
Stanton Heights	13.2	145	77
Brighton Heights	33.2	144	51
Overbrook	32.1	142	44
Hazelwood	33.4	141	85
Mount Washington	26	141	47
East Liberty	20.9	137	43
Sheridan	26.5	122	73
Knoxville	28.7	120	50
Beltzhoover	35.9	113	67
South Side Slopes	30.4	109	18
Shadyside	14.7	107	31

Useful information about "kinship programs" -- grandparents raising grandkids -- here, here and here.

Where the Elders Live

I created a Google Maps mashup of all the "freestanding" nursing homes (not part of a hospital) in Allegheny County. I plan to add personal care homes/assisted living soon. There are 30 for-profit homes with 3772 beds (green), 24 non-profit homes with 2692 beds (magenta), and 4 county-owned homes ("the Kanes") with 1214 beds (purple).


View Larger Map

All data from the CMS Nursing Home Compare site.

Obviously not all "elders" live in nursing homes -- the vast majority live on their own in the community.

I'm still working on summarizing the personal care/assisted living data for Allegheny County, but according to the PA Dept. of Public Welfare there are 6,453 residents living in 171 personal care homes/assisted living communities spread throughout the county (there is capacity for 8,835).